Truss urged to fast-track notorious Bruce Highway section

Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss is being urged to end the carnage on a notorious section of the Bruce Highway in his Wide Bay electorate.

Gympie councillor Wayne Sachs says 15 years is too long to wait for the complete upgrade of the 60 kilometre Cooroy to Curra stretch of the highway.

Cr Sachs is also an ambulance officer and he says the last two sections of the upgrade where work has not started should be fast-tracked.

He says Mr Truss knows first-hand how dangerous the stretch of road is.

"You can't put a price on life," he said.

"Warren Truss has gone down on record in the past and saying that every time he drives between the outskirts of Gympie on the northern side of Gympie, through Gympie and to Cooroy, his heart is in his mouth.

"He said that when he was in Opposition and I'm going to hold him to that.

"I'll be a little bit emotive about it because I do have some first-hand experience in relation to all this stuff.

"You can't put a price on life and I'm just going to keep hammering that line now.

"I'm not going to sit back and just do nothing.

"I've got to go up there and try and make an impression on him and if the initial reaction isn't all that positive I'm just going to keep hammering away until something is done."

He says the last two sections of the upgrade should be done together and to a more urgent schedule than the current timetable.

Cr Sachs says he is concerned when the new four-lane highway, with a 110 kilometre per hour speed limit, stops at the old road, it will cause more fatal crashes.

"That's the hot zone where these accidents south of Gympie are happening," he said.

"It's going to dump more traffic into that area and cause more fatal accidents than we've ever seen, I believe.

"Well God almighty, 15 years to get all that done I can just imagine how much grief is going to be caused in that time frame if we don't get it done sooner rather than later."

Fatigue message

The Queensland Police Minister says fatigue on the dangerous stretch of road if a major issue.

Jack Dempsey says it is a difficult area to legislate and people have to take responsibility for driving tired.

"What we've seen is we've got newer, flasher, more comfortable vehicles. We seem to put a lot of pressure on getting to-and-fro and that's why we always say every year to plan your trip, to take the time to organise who's going to be in the car, to have proper rest stops," he said.

"Education is one of the most important assets and we're continuously out there talking and re-educating [about] the fatal five.

"We do implore people - there's devices in the modern vehicles that tell you when you've driven for so many hours but people choose to ignore it and I'm just asking people if they are too careless themselves, please think about other people."